Grains, edible oils, utensils, fuels,aromatics, printing, moneylending, cinema,ship chandling etc.etc, a whole hodgepodge of seemingly unrelated businesses of the PSTS, PSTP, PSTC family meant I always knew it was possible for people to be simultaneously present and successful in widely divergent businesses.I also knew that if I listened carefully enough to the insiders,I’d understand the method behind what to outsiders looks like madness in these ventures.Ask me too how PSTS,PSTP&PSTC became shadows of themselves,and I have my views.Unfortunately such study is only good enough to tell me what not to do,what to guard against or insure.And all brakes is no good when you are setting out to build.What I really need in my position today are insights into the habits of P,S &T to which I could attribute their success.And to figure that out,I have nothing more than a few old papers and familylore affected by a few generations of retellings to rely on.And perhaps rely a bit on my gut instincts bred by the DNA we share.

So as luck would have it,when I heard of the story of another family of three brothers,in another small town,in another far corner of the country, that in contemporary times rose from grain to become the largest producers of marble in the world and then went on to set up a state of the art cement manufacturing unit in collaboration with ThyssenKrupp and Pfeiffer with the aim to become the foremost name in premium cement in the country and was now venturing into housing finance ,I simply had to attend the Wonder Home Finance launch event in Jaipur on Aug1 and try to learn as much as I could by keeping my eyes and ears open. Read more of this post

Now the general idea is that a body takes a home loan to purchase a house and a personal loan to defray marriage related expenses ,to take that vacation in Europe etc…..

Home loans are always secured loans. So the rate of interest generally tends to be much lower than almost any category of loan. And then of course for being such a good child ,the government gives you tax breaks too ! But there are cases where a personal loan is your best way forward to become a home-owner. Consider the following cases:

1.A place like Vasai-Virar might be one of the fastest growing regions in the MMR when it comes to lower priced homes that could also potentially make great capital investments. But start making enquiries and you will start finding out that a whole lot of properties are “Collector Passing” and that apart from the odd co-operative bank or the occasional patpedhi, no home loans to purchase such properties is possible from most lenders. Moreover, the interest rates of loans from these sources makes personal loans from major banks look attractive. Read more of this post

Mumbai is a city where real estate is so expensive that a lot of people, even those who are far from poor, make do with tiny homes in old dilapidated buildings and others resign themselves to living in far off suburbs in the MMR where homes are cheaper and then suffering the inevitable long commutes into the city.

Now the problem of living so long in an environment where we train ourselves to expect less by way of lifestyle, as an inevitable compromise to get on with the business of making money in Mumbai, is that we often forget to open our minds enough to ask if this much of compromise with the quality of life of ourselves and our children is really inevitable. For those of us living a cramped life in really old houses, are there no other locations where the houses are newer and the social infrastructure comparable to those in older neighbourhoods of the city ?And for those of us commuting for hours everyday, are there no better located homes, such that long commutes are cut short and we literally find time to actually live life in the Maximum City? Read more of this post

A REIT can be set up by a real estate developer or a private equity fund by pooling together rental real estate assets -office buildings, malls, warehouses -into a trust.

A REIT issues units that are traded like a mutual fund unit on any exchange that it is listed on.Like shares represented ownership in a company, a unit of REIT represents ownership of a pool of rent producing real estate assets, or of a company owning a real estate project.
Capital market regulator Sebi will shortly announce final guidelines for REITs.

So what does this mean to retail investors?Investments in REITs will be backed by assets, so they will be ideal for retail investors who want to get a piece of Indian real estate but without the hassles of property titles and other regulatory risks.

And how will REITS help real estate companies?
REITs will provide an exit option to real estate developers and to funds that own a stake in income-producing assets across India. It will provide builders a cheaper source of capital and the muchneeded liquidity to those who are highly leveraged. It will also reduce the exposure and risk assumed by the Indian banking system in the real estate sector.

Market regulator Sebi had notified the regulations for REITs last year, but there was lack of clarity on tax benefits for the new product from the govt’s side.There was a concern over double taxation of REITs.The finance minister,Arun Jaitley, announced in this budget that REITs will have pass through in relation to income from the project, which will eliminate multiple taxation.So.now REITs are likely to take off.